In legal battle between fair-trading General Electric Co. and Columbia, S.C. discount house, state supreme court gutted fair-trade law by striking down "non-signer clause," which says that stores must abide by fixed-price agreements even if they do not sign such pacts.

FAIR-TRADE LAW for whole nation is being pushed again by Congress protectionists, who want to allow manufacturers to set minimum prices.

It reaffirmed an earlier ruling that a state fair-trade law could be enforced only against those retailers who had signed fair-trade agreements,* thus touched off a wave of defections.

They refused to sign a fair-trade agreement with Seagram and Calvert distillers, and sold their liquor at cut rates, despite Louisiana's fair-trade law that made such price-cutting illegal.

Webb filed a countersuit charging that the state's fair-trade law was unconstitutional.